From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The idea of founding a theory of painting after the model of music theory was suggested by Goethe in 1807 and gained much regard among the avant-garde artists of the 1920s, the Weimar culture period, like Paul Klee. [1] [2]

From Goethe to Klee

Goethe famously said in 1807 that painting "lacks any established, accepted theory as exists in music". [2] [3] Kandinsky in 1911 reprised Goethe, agreeing that painting needed a solid foundational theory, and such theory should be patterned after the model of music theory, [2] and adding that there is a deep relationship between all the arts, not only between music and painting. [4]

The comparison of painting with music gained much regard among the avant-garde artists of the 1920s, the Weimar culture period, like Paul Klee. [1]

Structural semantic rhetoric

The Belgian semioticians known under the name Groupe µ, developed a method of painting research called structural semantic rhetoric; the aim of this method is to determine the stylistic and aesthetic features of any painting by means of the rhetorical operations of addition, omission, permutation and transposition. [5] [6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Marcel Franciscono Paul Klee: His Work and Thought, part 6 'The Bauhaus and Düsseldorf', chap. 'Klee's theory courses', p. 246 and under 'notes to pages 245–54' p. 365
  2. ^ a b c Moshe Barasch (2000) Theories of art – from impressionism to Kandinsky, part IV 'Abstract art', chap. 'Color' pp. 332–3
  3. ^ Goethe 19 May 1807, conversation with Riemer
  4. ^ Kandinsky p. 27
  5. ^ Winfried Nöth (1995) Handbook of semiotics pp. 342, 459
  6. ^ Jean-Marie Klinkenberg et al. ( Groupe µ) (1980) Plan d'une rhétorique de l'image, pp. 249–68

References

  • Kandinsky [1911] Concerning the Spiritual in Art, chapter The language of form and colour pp. 27–45